Maximum Ride: The Final Experiment
by Anne Taylor
Summary: So here's my theory on how Maximum Ride should end. Preview inside. Read and review?
1. Falling

**A/N: Hi, I'm Anne Taylor and this is my first fic. Well, at least the first fic I'm publishing. I'm freakishly protective over my stories so posting something on FanFiction is a huge step for me.  
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**Disclaimer: I'm not James Patterson. I own nothing, except for the plot and my characters.  
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><p><span>Preview:<span>

_The woman frowns. "Kids, I don't think they know."_

_"Don't know what?" I demand, starting to get impatient._

_"That it's over. The experiment is complete. You're in the real world now."_

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><p><span>Falling<span>

We were surrounded. Hundreds, _thousands_ of Erasers were coming at us from every direction. I looked to my right. Gazzy and Angel were both still fighting hard, but I could see that their punches were getting weaker. Iggy was making and detonating bombs by the dozens, but the Erasers kept pouring in. I had to do something, fast._ Think, __Max._

Suddenly I was free falling five-hundred feet. I tried to pump my wings, or at least pull them out and slow my fall, but it was like they weren't even there. My first thought went to the Flock. I tore away from my panic to look around and found them falling too. That's when I noticed that the Erasers were gone – all of them. Not a single one was in sight. Not in the sky, not on the ground, nowhere.

Speaking of which, why haven't I hit the ground yet? I looked down to find that the grass that was below me just a moment ago had disappeared into darkness. _What__'__s__ happening?_ The sky too had faded away into darkness. I called out for the Flock, but they were nowhere to be seen. I was falling and there was nothing I could do about it. That's all I could remember before I too was swallowed by the darkness.

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><p><strong>AN: Reviews are love. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.  
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	2. Awakening

Awakening

The burning smell of cleaning agents, bright fluorescent lights, generic white walls. It's all too familiar. I begin to get up when I find myself strapped down. I try to move my hand, but the metal cuffs are unrelenting. I instinctively scan the room for an escape route. The room has three white walls with what I assume to be one-way glass. The fourth wall is covered with all sorts of machinery – blinking lights, number pads, screens with various number patterns written across them. There are two doors at opposite sides of the room. I follow the sound of birds chirping to find an open window not too far away. _This__ is __too __easy._

I turn my head and find the others in similar situations. Confusion, recognition, and finally fear flash in all of their eyes. Their eyes eventually find mine. "Everyone okay?" I ask, trying to stay calm. Slowly each of them nods. Fang opens his mouth to say something when a creak echoes through the room. We all snap our heads to one of the doors.

Two kids peer inside before walking in: a girl with long dark hair woven into a braid and vibrant midnight eyes, and a boy with short dirty blond hair and light freckles under his warm chocolate eyes. There was something strange about them though. It wasn't just that they looked like they were barely over 15. It wasn't just that they were wearing a red blouse and a football jersey, not white lab coats. It was that they were…_smiling._ Like, full-out, ear-to-ear grins – not those forced ones they usually wear. Something was definitely off.

"Jamie! You're finally awake. Good morning," says the boy. He walks over to me and rubs his knuckles into my head as if we were old pals. I flinch away and he gives me a confused look.

The girl runs to Fang and wraps her arms around him. "Peter, I missed you so much!" she sobs into his chest. Fang just lies there stiffly.

I involuntarily yell, "Hey, get off him!"

Blondie to my right snickers. "Hey now, Sarah. Better keeps your hands off Peter. You're making Jamie upset."

The girl – Sarah? – smiles at me. "Sorry, Jamie. It's just that I haven't seen Petey in forever." I furrow my brow. Was she talking to me?

Fang was the first to talk. "Uh, I think you've got the wrong guy. My name's Fang."

Sarah turns to Blondie. "Marcus, what's he talking about? Doesn't he know it's over?"

The door at the other end of the hall suddenly slams open. A middle-aged woman with unruly brown hair dressed in a lab coat storms in. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of normalcy at the sight of a whitecoat. "How did you two get in here?" she snaps. Sarah and Marcus hide behind the table I'm strapped to like two little kids caught in the middle of stealing cookies. It was all too surreal.

"You left the back door open," Marcus says smoothly.

"And by that you mean Tommy used his lock-picking kit?" the woman asks, raising an eyebrow. The two hang their heads in shame. The woman simply rolls her eyes and smiles, as if she were used to this. "You guys. Speaking of Tommy, where is he?"

"Oh, he's –" Sarah begins, when I cut her off.

"Can someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" I interrupt.

The woman looks at me in surprise, as if she's just remembered I was there. "Jamie!" she exclaims, smiling at me as if I were her long, lost daughter or something. Tears form at the corners of her eyes. "It's been so long."

"What's going on?" Angel asks. "Max, I can't read their minds."

Marcus laughs. "I'd be more worried if you _could_ read our minds."

The woman, however, frowns. "Kids, I don't think they know."

"Don't know what?" I demand, starting to get impatient.

"That it's over. The experiment is complete. You're in the real world now."


	3. The Real World

The Real World

_The__ real__ world._ The words were a cold finger running down my spine. Its icy talons wrapped around my chest, making it suddenly harder to breathe.

She runs over to the wall and types something in. Every now and then, she'd mutter something like "Vital signs, check. Heart rate, 80bpm." She presses a series of buttons on one of the number pads and swipes a card that was hanging around her neck. "This should make you guys more comfortable. I'm Mrs. Delores by the way." The straps around our bodies go limp and we all instinctively jump up. That was weird. I felt heavier, slower, less agile.

_Must__ have __been__ some __heavy__ drugs._ "Iggy, window at 11 o'clock! U&A, guys!" I command. I jump up and pull out my… what? I stumble forward, barely stopping myself from falling onto my face. Why can't I feel my wings? Everything feels like it's in slow motion as I touch my back and feel nothing beneath my shirt. This can't be happening. I motion Gazzy over and check his back. No wings. Angel, Nudge, Iggy, Fang, still nothing. There weren't even any surgery marks. It's like they were never even there.

"Err, why are you guys looking at your backs?" Sarah asks, tilting her head to the side.

"Want to see mine? I have this cool dolphin-shaped mole behind my right shoulder," Marcus offers, grinning.

Sarah turns to him and blinks. "No comment."

I didn't have the time or patience for this. I turn to Mrs. Delores. "Where are we? This is the School, right?" The others cringe at the name. I make a mental note to refrain from using the S-word around them. "What do you want with us?" We all assume fighting positions.

"Whoaa, cool your jets, Jamie. We're your friends, remember?" says Marcus.

Fang lets out a dry laugh. "Friends, huh? Then let us out of here."

"We will, as soon as your parents get here." The one word stops us dead in our tracks.


	4. The Experiment

The Experiment

"Max, I'm confused. What's going on? Where are we? Is this the School or not? I thought the School was gone. And there are no, like, whitecoats or anything. Well except for Mrs. Delores, but we could totally take her," Nudge rambles. I can hear the underlying fear in her voice.

"You haven't changed a bit, Gabby." Mrs. Delores sighs. "Guys, take a seat." I hesitate a moment, but eventually obey. Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel follow suit. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we? So today is April 17th, 2045. About ten years ago, World War Three was declared. The following years were the hardest times we've ever faced." Mrs. Delores, Sarah, and Marcus all wore faces of pain.

"Gunshots and missiles were being fired every which way. You didn't know who was your friend or foe. You just shot them before they shot you. Dead bodies all over the streets, piled on top of each other like rag dolls," Sarah continues, a far-off look in her eyes.

Marcus wraps an arm around Sarah. "Then came the bombs. It started out as small ones, taking out towns and villages. Then it got bigger, wiping entire states off the map. And then… then came the nuclear bombs."

"They bombed this one city in France called Paris first. The result was terrible. The people… I don't know if I can even call them that. They were these grotesque _things_… some with four arms, others with yellow skin. They were the living dead." Mrs. Delores shivers. "It was terrible. Hundreds of thousands of French soldiers were mutilated. Even the French President was killed."

Her eyes suddenly darken. "But the world saw it as a success. One country was successfully taken over. And success after success, more and more people were destroyed. World leaders were driven mad with power.

"We had to do something or else they'd keep killing each other until there's no one left to kill. So we decided to try an experiment. That's where you come in, Jamie. Or, what was it? Max?"

I try to process it all in. How can the world be falling apart when the sun is shining so brightly outside? Why do the birds sing so cheerfully while people are dying every second? "An experiment?" I prod.

"Right. So our best doctors and scientists came up with a proposal: what if we improved the human race instead of destroying it? What if people could fly away from bombs when they saw them coming? We researched and developed the idea, but we couldn't test it out. What if the government got a hold of one of our experiments? We couldn't let that happen. So we chose a handful of children, all of different age and origin."

She turned to Angel and Gazzy. "Young ones." She faced Nudge. "Ones of different ethnicity." She looked at Iggy. "Disabled ones." Finally she makes it to Fang and I. I smile, wondering what great characteristic we were chosen for. Ones who were older? More mature? Ones with great leadership qualities? "And ones that were experiencing an imbalance of hormones." Fang's eyes widen, clearly not expecting that. My face falls and I fight down a blush. Did she really just say that? Mrs. Delores seems oblivious of our obvious embarrassment. Marcus elbows me in the ribs and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Sarah brings a hand to her mouth, obviously trying her best not to burst into laughter.

Mrs. Delores continues without missing a beat. "But there were still too many variables. Like what about the mutated outcomes of nuclear warfare? Could winged kids handle that? So we threw in wolf-like creatures. As the ones in reality evolved, so did the ones in the simulation. There were robotic creatures, flying creatures, creatures with different kinds of powers.

"The simulation was one of our best ideas yet. We could test our plan in a natural setting without anyone interfering or actually getting hurt. We could train you guys and give you the basics to survival as children and then sit back and observe as you grew up. It was a total success." She pauses. "Well, there were a few minor setbacks. Like when you would get those brain attacks, Jamie. We really apologize about that. And how you'd hear that voice in your head sometimes. That was the scientists back at the lab, trying to guide you. There were a few glitches in the system. Especially when we almost got caught by the feds and had to relocate. We had to pull you guys out of the system for a while. I believe you met Ter Borcht during that time. A scientific genius, but I can't understand a _word_ he says." She laughs at this.

Car lights shine through the window. I look outside and find that it's already getting dark. "Well now that our research is complete, you guys can go back to your families."


	5. Family

Family

This all crashed down on me way too fast. Okay, backtrack. My name is Maximum Ride. At least, I think it is. Without my wings, who am I? I am nobody. I am Jamie, a normal teenage girl. Being a normal kid with a normal family and normal DNA is all I've ever wanted. But why do I feel so terrible?

Marcus grabs my hand and starts pulling toward the door. "Come on, sis. Mom and Dad are waiting." I pull my hand back.

"No. You're not my brother. I don't know you."

Marcus frowns. "Ouch. Hurtful, much?"

I turn to the Flock. "Come guys, let's blow this joint." I start walking towards the door. A few steps forward, I realize that I don't hear footsteps behind me. "Guys?"

"Max. You wanted to save the world. And we did," Angel says softly.

"Angel, don't tell me you actually buy that nonsense. Let's go."

No one moves. Everyone's suddenly too fascinated with the floor to even look at me. "Guys!" Gazzy moves towards Angel. "Gazzy, don't tell me you too."

"Max, we have parents. We have a _family._ Is it bad to just go with them?" Gazzy asks, looking at me with huge Bambi eyes. What was I supposed to say? Forget your family and stay with the Flock?

Nudge and Iggy move across the room to stand with Angel and Gazzy. "Max, just accept it. It's all over. Be happy. It's really not that hard," Iggy says, shoving his hands into his pocket.

Fang stands in between the rest of the Flock and me. Since when did this get to picking sides? And why do I feel a sense of déjà vu? "Fang, please. Not you." He walks over to my side and I let go of a breath I hadn't known I was holding. He takes my hand in his.

"Max, what if this is real? What if there are no Erasers, no School, no being on the run every day of our lives. What if we had a chance to live like normal kids? Why wouldn't you want that?" He gently pulls me towards the others. I bite my lip and reluctantly follow him.

"So does this mean we're all going to go our own ways now?" I ask, blurting out the question that's been bothering me. Now that they had families, they don't need me to be their leader. They had no reason to stick around with bossy, stubborn, pain-in-the-butt Max anymore.

"Of course not, Max. We're still a Flock – with or without wings." Nudge chimes in. I smile and envelope her in a hug. Angel joins in and soon it's a group hug. We stack fists before pulling away.

"Thanks, guys. Let's go meet our families." Before leaving the room, I look up to find the birds outside still chirping away freely. They don't know if they're in the middle of a war of in the middle of peace. They'll be singing in rain and shine alike. Because to them, it doesn't matter. As long as they can still sing, they will.

I don't think I'll ever know whether this is the real world or not, but I know that the Flock is real. That's the one thing they can never take away from us, war or peace, rain or shine, reality or fiction: our memories, our family, our love.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope you liked it. :) Should I continue with their parents? Please leave a review!**


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